Yesterday, when my printer ran out of yellow ink, I went confidently to my repository to get a refill. You see, I always keep a spare handy; however, I lie because, apparently, I don't, in point of fact, always keep a spare handy. I had two black refills and one of every other colour — cyan, photo cyan, magenta, photo magenta — but no yellow. Back home (I know this is home now but that's just the way that I tend to refer to the place from where we have moved), if this sort of thing were to happen, I would simply drive, pedal or walk the several blocks to Staples in order to remedy the situation. Here, there is no Staples around the corner; the nearest is about 30k/20mi away.
It only takes a little longer than 20 minutes to get there but, still, with the current price of gas, one doesn't want to hop in the car willy nilly and drive about with wanton abandon. We had been thinking of going into town anyway this week, and I thought that I could pick up the ink then. Surely I could and would wait for a few days and make one trip instead of two.
Alas, I've been trying to put a dent in my to do list because I simply need to get on with life, start a new project — maybe even overhaul my blog template, for example. It seems months since I really got into anything; oddly enough, it seems that long because it has been that long what with the move and all. So, I had and have all of sorts little items to clear off the list before I can really move on to bigger projects. Unfortunately, it seemed that I required my printer to accomplish most of them. I mean, you can't really print new business cards without a working printer, now can you?
So, off we went to town, not really to town but to a mega big box mall on the edge of town. It has a 24 screen theatre, what seems like scores of restaurants, and seemingly endless numbers of big stores. Indeed, this mall is a big, big place, and the parking lots were pretty darn full. So were the stores.
It was Sunday for goodness sakes. This province didn't even allow shopping until about ten years ago, but judging from the throngs yesterday, Sunday shopping has become the event of the week. Don't people have anything else to do? Are their lives really so empty that Sunday Shopping has become the essence of their existence. Have Future Shop, Wal-Mart and their ilk become the venues of worship? How sad, even if this is only partly true.
Yes, I know that this might seem a tad hypocritical because I was there after all. I was part of the worship team as it were. But for the most part I am a rather apostate backslider when it comes to this religion ... although I might have a confession to share in the near future ... about a purchase that I made in the middle of this Sunday mayhem.
Meanwhile, I must get back to working my way through that to do list ...
Here in Manitoba the Sunday shopping hours are still restricted somewhat, 1200 - 1700. I must admit.. I often shop on Sundays :-).
ReplyDeleteBy coincidence I am also in need of printer ink and must pick some up today. I am lost without my printer.
My son emptied out the color blue in my printer; he was making business cards. Now my printer is sputtering out everything in yellow orange or pink. Not cool.
ReplyDeleteI wish I could sell the idea of canoeing to everyone - if they only knew the adventure and peace of it, they would not spend their time shopping. It would kill the impulse...
Six days of shopping should suffice, I think. But I too, have shopped on Sunday.
ReplyDeleteIsn't it interesting that when the towns and cities that make up our wonderful country were being built it was the churches that were the largest buildings. Now it's the megastores and malls. What do you think that says about our worshipping trends?
ReplyDeleteTwenty miles from a Staples? I don’t know if I could rough it that much. Here in the desert, we shop on Sundays, holidays, even have store open on Christmas day. Still, we bitch and moan that the stores close too early at night. The only businesses legally required to be closed on a Sunday are liquor stores and bars. Go fig.
ReplyDeleteI tend to be guilty of worshiping my couch on Sunday's.
ReplyDeleteI hear your pain on the gas pinch. I can't ever remember when I would second guess a 20 minute drive. I remember the good old days when we would get our Tim Hortons coffee after dinner and drive for fun! Long gone are those days. We just watched a fascniating documentary, and of course the name has escaped me, but it was about the rising costs of fuel. Apparently, geologists have been predicting since the 70's that we would peak our oil production by now, and once that happened, extraction and refining methods would start to get very expensive, and the costs would of course, be passed down the consumers. I hope their predictions of $4.00/L never come true. Can you imagine?
You are a magnificent writer.
ReplyDeleteAnd I'm probably not the person to comment on this because I think most shopping is excessive. I like to keep things simple and only have what I need.
My daughter is the one who wrecks havoc with my printer when she is home. She loves to print of pics of her favorite singers and movie stars to put on what she calls her man wall at college. I was really mad cause I had some important things that had to be printed off and had no ink to do it. I did not have any on hand either so I learned to hide my ink when she is home. *s*
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